Iris Blobel

Pages

Kathy Reichs - Deja Dead (Brennan #1)

Publisher: Scribner

ISBN: 978-2702818329

My rating: 3/5

Her life is devoted to justice — for those she never even knew.In the year since Temperance Brennan left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. When a female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in trash bags, Tempe detects an alarming pattern — and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her — her best friend and her own daughter — in mortal danger…. (www.kathyreichs.com)

My thoughts

I finished the book a few days back but still haven't decided what to think of it. It certainly wasn't a book that kept me hooked until late nights or even early mornings - okay, it did for the first 100-something pages, but then lost me as it dragged on.

Brennan is leaving behind a failed marriage and takes up a full time job in Montreal (extra kudos for the location!) And within the first few pages we have our first victim and a few further pages we have Brennan wondering whether there’s a serial killer out there ... with a lot of testosterone driven cops around her, so she’s left with finding evidence to prove the killer’s existence.

So once Brennan goes of to do exactly that .... the story loses my interest, it's long, drags on and the constant solo investigations were irritating. But it’s also the scientific terminology that I had problems with. Even though Reichs own background, I thought it was an overload.

I did like the cops, though, and thought Reichs did well “portraying” them in their coolness and “protectiveness” of their area of expertise – finding the killer! Claudel is a hoot!

Overall I thought a great first novel for Reichs, yet I expected more.